Clear of White
by SSaelyn
Summary: My first fic. In a world without Niebleheim....centers mainly around Aeris. Obviously somewhat AU. Please R&R!


It was a wet, Tuesday afternoon, mid-November in Midgar. The door to Marla's Café opened with a ring and in stepped another customer carrying in the grime of N. Charles St, in on his heels. 'Please Seat Yourself', read a sign by the hostess' stand. The man selected a booth near the window with a good view of the busy street outside. A cup of coffee and he was set.  
There were many people rushing to and fro, preparing for the holidays to come. There were thugs, businessmen, and families.but from around the corner of the brick Johnson & Son Billiards Co. appeared the man he was looking for. A smirk crossed a face, and he sighed a little.  
'Too bold, Strife, what were you thinking; running around with the same wild blonde hair and that sword strapped to your back. Too conspicuous.'  
He stifled a small laugh when Strife ran into someone . As the mercenary helped her up, his eyebrows raised in surprise. You wouldn't expect to see a girl like that on the streets of Sector 4.  
The girl was probably in her early twenties. She had light brown hair, braided back, and a light pink dress with a red jacket. In hand was a basket of flowers: another Midgar rarity. What on the Planet was such an innocent doing here? After making a sale she took off, Strife at her heels.  
"We've got em', looks like he's heading down by the train station on Summers St." He spoke into the phs.  
"Okay boss, we'll send in 7 units pronto."  
Sighing, Reno threw a five on the table and left.  
  
Aeris stuck her key in the knob and jiggled it around a little bit. Ughhh, it's so good to be home. Even though she was glad to be home, she was still a little depressed, not many people had bought flowers today. Time to slap on a happy face.  
"Mom! I'm home!" Aeris called out, wiping her feet on the doormat.  
"Oh, hi dear, come sit down, you're soaked." Elmyra said, gesturing to a chair.  
Aeris gave her a weak smile, and sank down into it, putting her head on the table.  
"Hard day?" Elmyra asked as she started to boil some water for their tea.  
"Not any worse than usual, I guess. Maybe I'm just.tired. You mind if I skip tea and supper tonight?"  
Elmyra nodded her approval and Aeris trudged up the stairs to her room. Taking off her jacket and throwing it on the bed, she began to paw through her top dresser drawer looking for a clean nightgown. Finding one, Aeris quickly changed, glad to be out of her stiff and wet dress. It didn't take her long to fall asleep that night.  
  
Reno's mind was blank as he opened up the door to his apartment. Throwing his coat on the arm of the couch, he turned on the tv more out of habit than any intention to watch it. It felt good just to have noise around the place. The ten o' clock reports came on as he popped dinner into the microwave.  
"The terrorist groupe "AVALANCHE" strikes yet again today in sector 3. The reactor there was decimated after a timed bomb went off in the heart of the reactor, causing over 40 casualties. We are still searching for those who-"  
Reno turned off the t.v. 'Damn. What are those Shinra recruits good for anyway?!" He closed his eyes and laid back on the lumpy sofa, preparing for sleep. The phone began to ring. Reno gritted his teeth. Always on the job. Tseng's probably callin' to bitch at me about today.  
"Lo'?" Reno answered the phone irratantly.  
"Reno, we got our next job lined up."  
"Rude. You sloshed? We've gotta hunt Stife down tomorrow? What are you talkin' about a new job."  
"Drop Strife. Hojo's throwin' a hissy in the science department. Gotta bring in a girl from Sect. 5 tomorrow."  
"That all? Too easy."  
"Yeah-well see you tomorrow."  
The other end clicked off and Reno put the phone back on the receiver. Returning to the couch, he stretched out on his back. Bring in a girl? Science department? What are we besides over- paid gophers? He laughed at the thought, might as well be.  
  
Light came in bars from the slitted lines of Aeris' blinds. She half- heartedly tugged on another one of her boots while seated on the side of her bed. Oh, it was so tempting, just to lean back a little.but she couldn't. Walking over to the door, Aeris slapped a smile on her face and left.  
"Hey flower lady!" The children grinned up at her.  
Aeris inaudibly sighed,"Good morning. How are you two today?"  
A mental frown. By coming to the church Aeris had hoped to be alone. Usually it was a sure thing; slum folk weren't all that pious, but lately the children had been popping in every once in a while.  
When do they have time to visit anyway? Shouldn't they be in school? Then again, the slums don't offer much of an education besides street smarts. Better for the children to work with dirt than dust. Better to water than to weigh. A half-hearted smile: Every day is beautiful.  
  
Reno woke, neck burning, back aching. He groaned, rolling over on the couch to look at the microwave. The numbers flashed all eights . Probably late, now I'll have Tseng's complaints on top of this headache.  
He pushed himself up off of the couch and pulled on the jeans he had discarded on the floor the previous night. A button up shirt still wrinkly from wear made his way over his head as well. Time to devastate the world.  
Rude didn't say anything as he entered the dingy office, not that he ever did. Tseng stood in the corner of the room by the filing cabinet, looking troubled. He turned on heel when Reno cleared his throat.  
"Late again, Reno? Anyway, no time for that now. Either of you seen the Gainsborough file?"  
Reno looked puzzled. "No man, last I knew, you had it. What is it with that person anyway, you practically tore up the office trying to find that file-don't tell me you lost it."  
"No, but now you need to see it." He handed over a small manilla folder to Reno. "Retrieve the subject and report back immediatley."  
Reno skimmed the folders contents. "Hey, this doesn't say where to find him."  
Tseng returned to facing the wall. "Aeris.will be in the abandoned Sector 5 church."  
"Aeris? Hey boss-what's with this chick, you sound as if you know her."  
"I did know her, once. We grew up together, we were.close. Which is why you are going-now."  
The door slammed behind Reno. Great: Tseng plays the shining knight once more. I work under a man who would hand the only girlfriend he probably ever had over to some freak "scientist". I could really use a cup of coffee right now  
  
The children had left hours ago, and Aeris was exhausted. Taking off her gardening gloves, she sank down onto one of the dusty pues and closed her eyes. She wished every day could be this simple: No running, no voices, no blood and drunks reaching for her ankles on street corners. Like that night.  
Flashback  
Rain drizzled in through the fault lines of the plate: you can guess how great that was for business. Aeris ducked into the broken mystery item booth to wait it out. Peering out into the street, she got a good view of the crowds.  
There were so many types of people trudging along through the mucky road. There were whores, thugs, recruits, then there were normal people. There were business men, street salesmen, sandwich boards, and then there was Zack.?!  
Zack Maritan, Aeris' 2 year boyfriend, was headed down the street. Aeris poised herself for a surprise attack. 1.2.THREE!  
"Zack!" Aeris pulled him into the booth with her.  
Zack looked surprised before he realized who it was. "Hey babe!" A look of pure happiness was on his face, then turned serious. "What are you doing here Aeris?"  
Aeris stared down at her shoes. "Well-I, there's a lot of wealthy pe- "  
"Aeris, whatever reason you have, it won't be good enough. Do you know what kind of place sector six is?! Aeris-I thought we agreed-"  
"Yes MOM! Yeesh, Zack, I'm twenty years old and a woman, not a little girl."  
"Maybe we SHOULD tell Elmyra about this, she would stop you from coming here. And don't even try and use the whole "I'm a mature woman" thing, kay? The fact that you are a BEAUTIFUL, mature woman just puts you in more danger here Aeris."  
Aeris grinned up at him, "Awww, no fair, you hit my weak spot." She frowned a little. "But while we're on the subject, why are YOU here? Don't you have work or something?"  
"I am working, sweetie."  
"Oh really, doing what exactly?"  
Just then a blonde headed man popped into the booth. He looked a little embarrased by Zack and Aeris' closenenss and fidgeted. "Umm-Zack, shouldn't we be getting over to the inn now?"  
Zack flushed red, "Go on ahead Strife, I'll meet you there in a half hour."  
The man called Strife blushed a little then made his way back out. Zack opened his mouth up to speak, but Aeris beat him to it.  
"AT WORK?! What kind of work are you doing, Zack?! The inn? The Honeybee Inn?! What kind of 'work' could you possibly be doing there?"  
"Aeris-it isn't what it sounds like. I'm only going for business, not erm-pleasure. We just got a call at headquarters, there was a pretty nasty homicide down there and it's got ShinRa's greasy little fingerprints all over it. We have to go for clean-up."  
Aeris' expression of fury turned to one of concern. "Zack-that isn't your kind of work is it? I mean-aren't you pretty high up there in the ranks? Just how bad is this thing?"  
Zack pulled Aeris to him, tucking her head under his chin. "Shhh-it's okay. I don't really know why they need a first class soldier either, usually this is turk work, but don't worry about me, k? C'mon let me walk you home?"  
Aeris nodded her consent and the two walked out. It had stopped raining and had settled down to a light mist. Aeris took in the air happily, it was a rare thing for rain under the plate.  
When they reached the deserted playground Aeris giggled happily and ran up to the huge climbing cat. She shimmied quickly up to the top, and beckoned for Zack to do the same. Zack gave her an odd look and took her suggestion.  
Aeris smiled happily,"This is a special place ya know?"  
"Yeah.this is where I meet you?"  
"Ahh.so you can remember some things."  
"Hey!" Zack mock-punched her playfully on the arm. "Umm.Aeris?"  
"Hmm?"  
"We've known each other for a while now, right?"  
"Yes.three years now."  
Zack smiled at the memory. He reached into his uniforms pocket and handled the object carefully inside. "Umm, well, Aeris..oh geez, I'm no good at this." He pulled out a small jewelry case and opened it up revealing a simple silver band with a pink amethyst in the center. "Uh.Aeris, I wanna know you longer.umm, a really long time."  
Aeris gasped."Are you proposing Zack?"  
Zack nodded relieved. "Well, then, yes."  
Zack didn't say anything but his face cracked into the widest grin without any of its unusual cockiness. He jumped off the cat taking Aeris down into his arms, and twirling her around.  
"Ughh, Zack if you don't stop I'm gonna urk-" Aeris laughed.  
Zack smiled like a little kid and then remembered the inn. "Oh, shit, Aeris, I gotta run, but if you can wait here a half an hour we can go tell Elmyra together."  
Aeris nodded, speechless, and settled down on the swingset, lost in her thoughts. To think.oh, there was too much to think about and most of what came up were fragments of nonsense. She felt like a giddy little kid opening up a present.  
A half an hour came to pass and Zack was seen running towards her. Aeris decided to go for another surprise attack and hid behind the cat. She was about to come out angrily when he just passed her by when she heard it, saw it. Two bullets, one riding the other, splitting the air and compromising her reality. Zack fell. All Aeris could see was her fiancee and his 5'4" murdress, black boots, black hair, white halter, splattered with blood. And then she was gone.  
Aeris stumbled towards her boyfriends courpse, feet falling clumsily after each other, unable to support the weight of her emotions, she fell by his side.  
So cold. His eyes were open, eerily staring wide past her. Aeris shook him, her throat to bogged up to cry out, her eyes to dry and burning to cry. She buried her face in his chest as his blood oozed sticky staining her white skirt, which would be brown tomorrow. She could pretend. He was still alive, he'd never die, always so full of life.  
She played with his boot string, staring at the black length of it. Taking it off. Something screamed. Aeris looked up wearily, but there was nothing there. It came from inside of her,tearing her insides. 'Run_____planet_______Gains-_________last_______run'  
Aeris heard someone approaching, she ran. Breath ragged, heart pumping, she fell. Blood mixing with dirt, mixing with tears, mixing with white cotton. She pushed herself up and ran up into the church passing out on one of the pews. She would never wear white again.  
End Flashback  
  
Aeris suddenly became very aware of a hand resting on her shoulder. Green eyes met blue.  
"Can I help you?"  
The eyes owner smirked, "I certainly hope so."  
One searing pain seered through her arm and Aeris passed out.  
  
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 and any of it's characters/locations do not belong to me, ect., ect., and so on 


End file.
